Indian girl, 5, in stable condition after being raped, tortured for 2 days, officials say

April 19: 5-year-old girl, according to police, is wheeled into a hospital for treatment after she was raped and tortured in New Delhi, India. (AP)

A 5-year-old girl was in stable condition Sunday after being raped and tortured by a man who held her in a locked room in India's capital for two days, officials said.

The girl disappeared Monday and was found Wednesday by neighbors who heard her crying in a room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her parents, said Delhi police official Deepak Mishra. The girl was found alone locked in a room and left for dead, he said.

The girl suffered severe internal injuries, as well as cuts and bite marks on her face and torso, said D.K. Sharma, the medical superintendent of the government-run hospital in New Delhi where she was being treated. Sharma described the girl's condition as "serious" and said doctors were trying to stabilize her condition.

A 24-year-old man who lived in the room where the girl was found was arrested Saturday in Muzaffarpur town in Bihar state, about 620 miles east of New Delhi, Mishra said. The suspect was flown to New Delhi, where a magistrate ordered that he be held in police custody.

Hundreds of people in New Delhi protested Saturday near the home minister's residence and outside police headquarters demanding government action against the police for allegedly failing to immediately investigate after the girl was reported missing.

Rights activists and officials said the girl's parents went to police Monday to report their daughter was missing, but that police refused to register a case. The parents are poor construction workers who had migrated to the city some years ago in search of work.

"The police did nothing. They did not register a complaint, the first step before they can begin investigations," said Ranjana Kumari, a women's rights activist and social scientist. "This heinous crime could have been prevented if police had begun investigations promptly."

Protesters reportedly demanded the arrest of the police officers who allegedly tried to cover up the case by offering the victim's parents money, The Times of India reported.

Women protesters were allegedly slapped by police officers.

Police had no immediate comment on the accusations, but Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Saturday that an inquiry had been ordered into the handling of the case.

The growing outrage against alleged police high-handedness in India led even the country's normally reticent leader to react.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called the police behavior "completely unacceptable." He conveyed to Delhi authorities "the need for the strictest possible action to be taken against the erring officials," the prime minister's office said in a statement late Friday.

Security was tightened around police headquarters and the hospital where the victim is being treated.

The incident came four months after the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.